Jarrow
From Free net encyclopedia
Jarrow is a town on the River Tyne, England with a population around 27,000 (2001 Census). It is part of the South Tyneside district of Tyne and Wear.
There was a Roman fort on the site in the 1st century, and it was also occupied by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century. The town derives its name from its Anglo-Saxon name "Gyrwe" (pronounced Yeerweh), which means marsh or fen.
The Monastery of Saint Paul in Jarrow was once the home of the Venerable Bede, whose most notable works include The Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the translation of the Gospel of John into Old English. At the time of its foundation, it was reputed to have been the only centre of learning in Europe north of Rome. In 794 Jarrow became the second target in England of the Vikings, who had plundered Lindisfarne in 793. The Monastery was later dissolved by Henry VIII. The ruins of the Monastery are now associated with and partly built into the present-day church of St. Paul, which stands on the site. One wall of the church contains the oldest stained-glass window in the world, dating from about AD 600. Not far from the Monastery is "Bede's World", a working museum dedicated to the life and times of Bede.
Jarrow remained a small town until the introduction of heavy industries like coal mining and shipbuilding. Charles Mark Palmer established a shipyard here in 1852 and became the first armour-plate manufacturer in the world. His iron steam-driven trawler John Bowes revived the Tyne coal trade, and Palmers was also responsible for the first modern cargo ship, as well as a number of notable warships.
Palmers employed as much as 80% of the town's working population until its closure in the early 1930s following intervention by the Conservative government. Around 1,000 ships were built at the yard. As from 1935, Olympic, the sister ship of RMS Titanic, was partially demolished at Jarrow (in 1937 she was towed to Inverkeithing, Scotland for final scrapping).
The closure of the shipyard was responsible for one of the events for which Jarrow is most famous. Jarrow is marked in history as the starting point of the Jarrow Crusade (to London) to protest against unemployment in Britain in 1936. Jarrow MP Ellen Wilkinson wrote about these events in her book The Town That Was Murdered (1939).
Famous Jarrow residents
- Wee Georgie Wood Music Hall star
- Alan Plater Writer
- Steve Cram Olympic Athlete
- Jarrow Elvis Elvis impersonator
- J.M.W. Turner The great artist was rowed out into Jarrow Slake in 1835 to paint his picture of 'Keelmen Hauling Coals by Moonlight' now in Washington D.C.
- L.S. Lowry The well-known artist spent time in Jarrow in 1964.
- Stephen Hepburn Politician
- Patrick Stewart Star Trek actor, spent the majority of his childhood living in Jarrow, although was not born here